Questions About Charge offs!!

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone.  This is my first post so thank you for reading!

My wife and I have some issues that need to get resolved,  We are TRYING (LOL) to purchase our first home, but know we have alot of work to do based on rebuilding our credit.  Weve even flirted with the BK idea.  My question(s) are as follows.

:1 Our credit shows a good amount of charge offs.  Some charge offs have been on there prior to us getting married. And some charge offs have accruded during our marriage.  Total amount due on our charge offs is between 3-5K  So if we pay this off completely.  WILL THIS BOOST OUR CREDIT?  if SO HOW LONG DOES IT GENERALLY TAKE to DO SO? we have two revoloving debt accounts which include a car note and a credit card.

::2, We have noticed that there are charge offs and collection accounts that we have paid off successfully.  YET some still SHOW that we were late on making payments. EVEN though the account is PAID in FULL.  ARE THE LATES STILL IMPACTING OUR CREDIT NEGITVILY?.  If so CAN WE ASK THOSE COMPANIES TO REMOVE OR DELETE THE TRADELINE?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR HELP

CHRIS

[Creditdreamer]

1. If you pay those off it won't necessarily affect your credit score as it will look better to potential lenders. However, you should consider attempting pay for deletes with these companies that are reporting the charge offs. If these are successfully deleted for your credit, there will be no record of them and your score will go up.

2. Are the accounts saying Paid in Full and showing lates? Or are they just showing the lates?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your for response.
ur credit is showing paid and lates from prior to us paying it on full.
So irritating that its still being reported. Also it shows paid but settle for less amount. Im thinking Really! Lol. How much is it to pay for deletion?
Thx

[Creditdreamer]

I have a charge off that I paid and it says paid as agreed I think. It's really whatever the original creditor decides to put. If the information is truly wrong you can dispute it with the credit bureaus.

Pay for deletes are not so much a specific number but a negotiation process. Look up pay for delete on this site or on a search engine and you'll find a lot of good info as well as some sample pay for delete (PFD) letters. They don't always work but it's worth trying.

[RobertEG]

It is proper for prior delinquencies and the charge-off to continue to be included in your CR after payment of the debt.

Paying does not negate the occurance of the prior delinquencies, and as such, they constitute accurate information.

Payment of the debt requires the OC to update the current status to paid, and the debt balance to $0.

The policy of the CRAs, as expressly stated in their credit reporting agreements and their credit reporting manual, is that prior, accurate information is not to be deleted based on payment of the debt.  The policy is to preserve the integrity and usefulness of the credit reporting system by maintaining complete and accurate credit histories reported by creditors and debt collectors.

[hoping2rebuild]

Just paying a charge off doesn't help HOWEVER

if it is still being factored into your utilization and the

balance goes to zero that can help your score

[Anonymous]

So it sounds like theres nothing I can be done about removing charge offs that have been paid other then paying for a delete.  I just scared that even though we will pay the items and everything will show 0.  Will morgage lenders still look at the fact that It WAS A CHARGE OFF and NOt give us a LOAN.  Things are tight now as far as givng out loans for homes. My wife is a VETERAN, we are looking at a VA loan.  I know they DO not like to see charge offs.

Chris